Reza Pahlavi (Persian: رضا پهلوی‎, born 31 October 1960) is the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran and current head of the House of Pahlavi. He is the older son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi. He is the pretender to the former Persian throne. As Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi left Iran at the age of 17 for air force training, two years before the Iranian Revolution. In 2011, Reza Pahlavi was named Iran''s Person Of The Year by an online poll conducted by Radio Farda that included thousands of Iranian respondents inside and outside Iran. He is the founder and leader of Iran National Council, a government in exile of Iran.

Reza Pahlavi was born in Tehran, Iran, the eldest son of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Empress Farah Pahlavi. Reza Pahlavi''s siblings include his sister Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi (born 12 March 1963), brother Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011), and sister Princess Leila Pahlavi (27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001), as well as a half-sister, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi (born 27 October 1941).

Accepted into the Imperial Iranian Air Force as a junior officer following secondary schooling, he left Iran in 1977 at the age of 17 for air force flight training in the United States. He spent a year at Williams College in the United States, but was forced to leave because of the turmoil in Iran. With the monarchy overthrown and an Islamic Republic established, Reza Pahlavi did not return to Iran.

He obtained a BSc degree in political science by correspondence from the University of Southern California, because Williams did not offer that option.

A jet fighter pilot, Reza Pahlavi completed the United States Air Force''s Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) Program at the former Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. In 1980, at the start of the Iran–Iraq War, Reza Pahlavi, a highly trained fighter pilot, wrote to General Valiollah Fallahi, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, offering to fight in the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. His offer was rebuffed.

Upon the death of his father on 27 July 1980, Reza Pahlavi became the Head of the House of Pahlavi.

Reza Pahlavi has written three books on the state of Iran.

According to Iranian writer Reza Bayegan, Prince Reza Pahlavi is deeply attached to his Shi''ite Muslim faith. He has performed the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. However, in one of the Q&A''s on Reza Pahlavi''s personal website a question was asked to him whether he sees himself as a Muslim or not, to which Reza Pahlavi replied: "Religion is a private and personal matter and its privacy should be respected."

Reza married Yasmine Etemad-Amini on 12 June 1986. Yasmine, a graduate of the George Washington University School of Law, worked for ten years as a lawyer for the Children’s Law Center as a legal advocate for at-risk youth. Yasmine also founded the Foundation for the Children of Iran in 1991, a non-profit foundation that provides health care services to Iranian children or children of Iranian origin.

In 2004, Reza Pahlavi was named as the "unofficial godfather" of Princess Louise of Belgium, the eighth granddaughter of King Albert II of Belgium. The decision to choose him was criticized by the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

PoliticsReza Pahlavi sworn in as Head of the House of Pahlavi in 1980 at Koubbeh Palace, Cairo.

Reza Pahlavi II has used his high profile as an Iranian abroad to campaign for human rights, democracy and unity among Iranians in and outside Iran. On his website he calls for a separation of religion and state in Iran and for free and fair elections "for all freedom-loving individuals and political ideologies". He exhorts all groups dedicated to a democratic agenda to work together for a democratic and secular Iranian government.

According to Reza Bayegan, Reza Pahlavi believes in the separation of religion from politics. However, he avoids the "Islam bashing" that Bayegan writes occurs in some circles of the Iranian opposition. Rather, he believes that religion has a humanizing and ethical role in shaping individual character and infusing society with greater purpose.

Reza Pahlavi wrote in his book, Winds of Change:

“

Since the advent of Islam, our clergymen have served as a moral compass. Spirituality has been an inseparable part of our culture...Today, moral guidance has been replaced by clerical censorship and dictatorial fiat.

”

He has used media appearances to urge Iran''s theocratic government to accept a referendum that uses independently verifiable international standards and observation mechanisms. He has also urged Iranians to engage in a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, starting with non-participation in elections of the Islamic republic (elections he views as undemocratic), followed by peaceful demonstrations and strikes. He is, however, an outspoken opponent of any foreign military intervention for regime change in Iran, believing that the people of Iran alone have the power to bring about change in their governmental system and society.

Some of Iranian clergy, such as Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, who oppose the politicization of Islam, support Reza Pahlavi.

The People''s Mujahedin of Iran''s most important competitor under exiled Iranians is Reza Pahlavi. Massoud Rajavi, leader of People''s Mujahedin of Iran, who once spoke against US then-president Bill Clinton for visiting Reza Pahlavi in a restaurant, asked Reza Pahlavi for support. Massoud Rajavi directly asked Reza Pahlavi to defend People''s Mujahedin of Iran and to try for its removal from terror list of United States Department of State. The European Union, Canada and the United States formerly listed the MEK as a terrorist organization, but this designation has since been lifted, first by the Council of the European Union in 26 January 2009 (following what the group called a "seven-year-long legal and political battle"), then by a decision by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on 21 September 2012 and lastly by a decision by the Canadian government on 20 December 2012.

On 26 June 2009 during an interview with Deborah Solomon of New York Times Magazine, Reza Pahlavi was asked:

“

What religion are you?

That’s a private matter; but if you must know, I am, of course, by education and by conviction, a Shiite Muslim. I am very much a man of faith.

”

Human rights

On 27 March 2010, Reza Pahlavi was invited by the International Society of Human Rights in Bonn, Germany, to speak on the challenge of implementing democracy and human rights in Iran; a sample excerpt from this speech follows:

“

...democracy and human rights for Iran is not just a slogan; it is our unique hope for salvation and the fundamental element which will bring long term political stability as well as put our nation back on the track of modernity, progress and prosperity. Iranians have come a long way, particularly in this last century. We have paid a heavy price while learning valuable lessons. As such, we are stronger as a society and perhaps clearer in our collective vision of a better future.

”

Other samples of his speeches are in the external links below.

2011 comments

In February 2011, after violence erupted in Tehran, Reza Pahlavi II said that Iran’s youth were determined to get rid of an authoritarian government tainted by corruption and misrule in the hope of installing a democracy. "Fundamental and necessary change is long overdue for our region and we have a whole generation of young Egyptians and Iranians not willing to take no for an answer," he told the Daily Telegraph. "Democratisation is now an imperative that cannot be denied. It is only a matter of time before the whole region can transform itself."

Following in a line of Persian dynasties stretching back 3,000 years, the Pahlavi dynasty was founded early in the twentieth century. The 1979 revolution replaced the monarchy with an Islamic republic. Although he lives in exile, Reza Pahlavi II is regarded by some Iranians as the current Shahanshah of Iran. After the death of his father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, he symbolically declared himself Shāhanshāh (literally King of Kings in Persian) at the age of 21. He remains crown prince according to the former Constitution of 1906, as he is required to take the oath in the Iranian Parliament first. His press releases refer to him as either "Reza Pahlavi" or "the former Crown Prince of Iran".

On his website, Reza Pahlavi has said that the state of Iran should become democratic and secular, and human rights should be respected. Whether the form of government would be that of a constitutional monarchy or a republic is something that he would like to leave up to the people of Iran.

Succession Further information: Line of succession to the Iranian throne

Reza Pahlavi II is first in the line of succession to his late father, while his younger brother Ali-Reza Pahlavi II was second in line until his death in January 2011. His cousin Ali Patrick Pahlavi is now second in line.

^ An Interview with Reza Pahlavi. Mideastnews.com. February 2002. Retrieved on 9 June 2012.

^ a b Reza Bayegan. "Reza Pahlavi and the Question of Religion". Payvand.

^ May 2011 Q&A, question 8. Rezapahlavi.org

^ The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of the child being baptized, does not accept non-Catholics as godparents, given the religious nature of the role, so Pahlavi''s role was downgraded to unofficial, not formal.